State-Run Media Declares Obama Summit a Success (Milbank Miffed)

Apr 14, 2010

RUSH: Let me grab Vinny here from Howard Beach really quickly. Vinny wants to talk about Dana Milbank’s piece, which is next up in the Stack of Stuff. Vinny from Howard Beach, welcome to EIB Network. It’s great to have you here, sir.

CALLER: Dittos, Great One. So let me get this straight. I’m supposed to feel sorry for Dana Milbank — or is he asking for our help or something — after he’s one of the slime that helped bring Barack Obama to power? I could give a damn about Dana Milbank and every editor in the Times and in the Post and in the LA Times and NPR that helped perpetrate this fraud on the American people as I watch my country being taken from me every day bit by bit by bit. Dana Milbank, stick it up your you-know-what. I could give a damn. You put us here; now I hope you rot.

RUSH: That’s Vinny in Howard Beach in New York with his message of affection for Dana Milbank at the Washington Post. Vinny is not alone in his sentiments there — and you can see by the plummeting ad sales, readership levels, subscription levels of publications (mainstream media publications) and TV networks all over the country, magazines. If you don’t know what this is about, Dana Milbank is upset that the press was shut out of Obama’s big nuke summit. Dana, the reason you were shut out is that nothing happened there. The reason you were shut out is that Obama did not want you seeing how inconsequential this thing was. They wanted you to only have press releases from Robert Gibbs and others who attended talking about how wonderful Obama is, how competent he is, what a great teacher he is. Nothing got done of any consequence, of any substance. So, Mr. Milbank, they simply didn’t want you witnessing incompetence. They didn’t want you witnessing a waste of time. Here, grab audio sound bite number three. Dana, this is why you and your press brethren were shut out.

MATT LAUER: President Obama has wrapped up his successful nuclear security summit!

LYNN BERRY: Today we begin with a complete success!

JEREMY HUBBARD: Summit success!

F. CHUCK TODD: The president in the White House declared this summit on nuclear security a success.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: President Obama is touting his big nuclear summit as a major success.

BETTY NGUYEN: A complete success!

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The nuclear summit with a good deal accomplished there!

KATIE COURIC: Is it safe to say, ‘mission accomplished’?

RUSH: That’s Katie Couric. They weren’t there. None of these reporters were there. Just like Dana Milbank, they were shut out. They didn’t see what went on. They just have the administration’s word for it: ‘It was a success,’ and these are the lapdog media. They’re interested in Obama’s agenda being furthered. Dana Milbank is a little miffed about it. Dana Milbank doesn’t want to write a column based on a press release. By the way, would we ever expect any administration to say, ‘Ah, we really botched this. The nuclear summit was a failure.’ Is any administration going to say that? The only thing I can remember a White House saying that was Reagan and George Schultz after Reykjavik when rig threw down this command order to Gorbachev, ‘You want to get rid of nukes? Fine. Let’s get rid of all of them right now.’

Maybe it was Gorbachev who said that, Reagan. ‘No, no, no, we’re not going to.’ That meeting was judged to be a failure and they came out and said so, but in the end it was a success because we didn’t buckle. Here’s part of what Dana Milbank wrote. ‘World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow.’ Now, that’s an amazing opening sentence for ol’ Dana Milbank, and sadly it is prophetic. These world leaders ‘entered a capital that had become a military encampment, with camo-wearing military police in Humvees and enough Army vehicles to make it look like a Mayday parade on New York Avenue, where a bicyclist was killed Monday by a National Guard truck.

‘In the middle of it all was Obama — occupant of an office once informally known as ‘leader of the free world’ — putting on a clinic for some of the world’s greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press.’ Dana Milbank, State-Controlled Washington Post. Obama was ‘putting on a clinic for some of the world’s greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press. The only part of the summit, other than a post-meeting news conference, that was visible to the public was Obama’s eight-minute opening statement, which ended with the words: ‘I’m going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session.’ Reporters for foreign outlets,’ many operating in repressive countries, ‘got the impression that the vaunted American freedoms are not all they’re cracked up to be.’ Dana, are you starting to see things the way many of us do in this country? He goes on to quote here some members of the foreign press.

‘When you only see the president for 15 or 20 seconds without him asking if you have any questions, it’s very frustrating,’ said Laura Haim of France’s Canal+, which persuaded the White House to include foreign outlets in the press pool. ‘It’s very important for this president, who wants to restore the image of the United States, to have more access.’ Obama’s official schedule for Tuesday would have pleased China’s Central Committee. Excerpts: ‘The President will attend the Heads of Delegation working lunch. This lunch is closed press . . . The President will meet with Prime Minster Erdogan of Turkey. This meeting is closed press. … The President will attend Plenary Session II of the Nuclear Security Summit. This session is closed press.’ Reporters, even those on the White House beat for two decades, said it was the most restrictive set of meetings they had ever seen in Washington. They complained to both the administration and White House Correspondents’ Association, which will discuss the matter Wednesday with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. The restrictions have become a common practice for the Obama [regime]. … Over the weekend, Obama broke with years of protocol and slipped off to a soccer game without the ‘protective’ pool that is always in the vicinity of the president in case the unthinkable occurs. Finally, Obama walked over to a group of reporters Monday afternoon. Would he give them an account of his meetings? He said with a smile, ‘I’ll let somebody else do it.” Dana Milbank wants us to feel sorry for the press because they were denied access. Go back to audio sound bite three. You’ve just heard Dana Milbank, and what he wrote is true: Nobody saw anything happen here. Not one member of the media was allowed access to anything that took place, and the reason is that nothing took place. This was all a giant PR show. And despite the fact that Dana Milbank writes that nothing took place, that nobody saw anything, we have this from the State-Controlled Media last night and this morning.

MATT LAUER: President Obama has wrapped up his successful nuclear security summit!

LYNN BERRY: Today we begin with a complete success!

JEREMY HUBBARD: Summit success!

F. CHUCK TODD: The president in the White House declared this summit on nuclear security a success.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: President Obama is touting his big nuclear summit as a major success.

BETTY NGUYEN: A complete success!

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The nuclear summit with a good deal accomplished there!